You really can get free stuff, but yes, sometimes there are strings attached. For example, when we were at universal studios I got a free backpack. The catch? I spent six minutes filling out a credit card application. On the other hand, we ate pretty well on free sample days at local food stores when we lived in Tucson, and there really weren’t any strings attached, other than the risk of being sold a delicious new food. Check ut the easy freebies that follow.

Free Entertainment

Many libraries carry movies on DVD, and most at least have documentaries. We ‘ve even seen music videos on DVD in one library. The only cost? The time to get a library card.

Want free concerts? Festivals usually have some free musical entertainment. For example, the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan has free entertainment every night during the week-long festival, including many recognizable bands and (often) a Beatles tribute band. Go to Google and type in “festival” and the name of towns around you to find these freebies.

Free Vacations

In Hawaii, Costa Rica or Colorado, someone is just waiting for you to come and stay in their house while they are away. You may have to water the plants, and even get the mail for them, but you get to stay in a beautiful home in a sunny place. Sometimes you even get paid for these vacations. The only catch is that to find these opportunities, you may have to subscribe to one of the newsletters that list them.

We camped for ten days in our van, at Williams Landing, east of Tallahassee, Florida, on Lake Talquin. It’s a beautiful place, and even has hot showers. Our cost? Zero – and you can stay up to two weeks. There are many free campgrounds scattered around the country. To find them, buy a Woodall’s directory from any large RV dealer. Camping can be an essentially free vacation if done right, because you may spend less than if you stayed home.

You can get free dental x-rays at some dental colleges. Be patient, as the students are just learning, but an experienced technician is always with them. When done, you’ll get the x-rays to take to your own dentist, which can save you $30 to $80. Some schools charge a small fee, but is always less than the regular cost.

Many utility companies offer free “energy audits.” They’ll come to your home and find the places where you are wasting energy. Some even han out free kits for caulking windows and weather-stripping doors. call and ask.

Want free, confidential business advice from a business expert? Go to the website of “SCORE” (Service Corps of Retired Executives). These are successful business executives who volunteer time to help others in business.

Some restaurants will give you a free dinner on your birthday. Others give a free birthday cake. Bars will often buy your first drink for you if it’s your birthday. How do you find the ones that do this? The way you always discover how to get free stuff – just ask.

Do unexpected car repairs, quarterly insurance payments or unexpected medical bills find you hard pressed to squeeze even one more dollar out of an already stretched monthly budget? These are inevitable expenses and sometimes can put you under a stress condition when you need the cash to pay for these emergencies and unexpected expenses. But if you learn to budget for these emergencies events and save in advance, you will be at a better position to handle them.

Like most of Americans, you may stretch your income to cover the regular monthly expenses, and always choose to ignore or not to think about the brakes that are getting spongy or the plumbing that's beginning to make strange noises. And you end up a surge on your monthly expenses when the brakes wear off and the plumbing break out.

Planning and saving for those events can help prevent an ordinary life from turning into a crisis and can also cut down dependence on credit cards. Not having savings is a major reason people get into debt.

Here are some steps to help you get started to plan for your emergency fund, the "Saving" fund which will help you prevent financial disaster.

Identify your irregular expenses
Analyze your pass credit card statement and checking account registers to identify your irregular expenses occur throughout the year. Examples of these irregular expenses are property taxes, insurance premiums, vacations, car tune-ups, holidays and birthdays. List down in a piece of paper all the expenses which are not spent in monthly basis.

Write the anticipated amount on the calendar

In most of cases such as insurance premium and property taxes, you will know when the expenses are due to occur. And for those unknown cases such as car repair and plumping repair cost, try to anticipate their expenses and list them somewhat earlier than you actually expect them to come up. Be sure to update your calendar as you discover more expenses.

Plan-in the non-monthly expenses into your monthly spending

Based on the foreseen amount and anticipated amount that are captured on your calendar, plan ahead your non-monthly expenses into your monthly spending. For example, you know that your car insurance is going to due on May, set aside small amount of your money for this purpose starting on February. And when May rolls around you can transfer the expense to your spending plan and have money available to pay it. Setting aside even a few dollars each month for foreseeable expenses can prevent larger money woes ahead.

Sometimes, you may find it hard to set aside some extra money from your monthly income; but remember, repairing your car or paying your insurance is not optional expenses and you need to spend it soon or later. So you need to find a way to reduce your monthly expenses so that some money can set aside for emergency fund. You may need to track your spending; then, reduce or cut the optional expenses such as entertainment, dinner at restaurant and other impulse purchase, the money save from those optional expense can be put into your emergency fund.